Two
specially-equipped sailboats are attempting a voyage that’s never
been done before – a trip to the North Pole. Led by a British
explorer, the international crew has moved the boats from their home
in Sitka up to Nome, where they’re hoping to launch for their
journey to the Pole this weekend.

Melting
sea ice in the Arctic could make their voyage possible for the first
time in history

The
North Pole has long been locked in ice. But climate change is
breaking the Arctic apart, turning a polar landscape into something
far more friendly for boats.

Like
the Snow Dragon II.

With
its big white sail, the yacht looks like a pleasure craft but is
sturdy enough to collide with sea ice at full speed without breaking
apart. Explorer Pen Hadow is actually taking two boats on the trip:
the Snow Dragon with its aluminum hull and the Bagheera, which is
made of steel. He hopes their journey will send a powerful message to
world leaders that something isn’t right at the top of the world.

“We
are not going to be able to carry on mindlessly taking whatever we
want from the environment and I think a lot of people are looking to
this as a symbol for a new debate,” Hadow said.

The
Bagheera and Snow Dragon II are polar yachts attempting to sail to
the North Pole. They are currently tied up in the Port of Nome.
(Photo by Conor McDonnell)

If
two sailboats can get there, a whole universe of economic activity
opens up – including shipping and fishing. Both Russia and Denmark
have filed a claim for the seafloor of the North Pole and other
countries want to expand northward too. Unlike the South Pole, the
North Pole has no legal protections. Hadow wants to shine a spotlight
on the vulnerability of this region, by being the first to get there.

“It
is a strange challenge and ambition indeed working very hard to put
together a project that you don’t want to succeed,” Hadow said.

Because
success means the ice is going or gone. Hadow calls the project
Arctic Mission. His crew of ten includes lead scientist Tim Gordon,
who will collect data from creatures both well-known and mysterious.

“When
the ice melts polar bears struggle to hunt seals, but there’s a lot
going on beneath the waves that we know much less about.”

Like
bacteria, plankton, and other species living in frigid temperatures
and total darkness. In studying them, Gordon wants to create a
snapshot of how human action is changing the world.

“Now
that the ice is melting, they are all of a sudden going to be exposed
to commercial fishing, to commercial shipping, to a whole wave of new
competitor animals that will come in.”

In
other words, Gordon says, the whole food chain could be altered
without ice to protect the region. There’s broad scientific
consensus that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the
planet.